Should trees have to suffer for art's sake?

Linda Hoffman is an artist, and wants to stress that she loves Fruitlands Museum in Harvard and would never support the suppression or censorship of art.

Still, she's among those “bothered” by a controversial sculpture at Fruitlands by its artist-in-residence, Andy Moerlein, who often designs his work from wood, trees and birds. The trees he uses are real, but the birds, thankfully, are ceramic, because gluing a live owl to a wood sculpture for the sake of art would likely cause lots of problems with PETA.

But among Moerlein's sculptures at Fruitlands is a provocative piece he calls “Intersection.” Basically, he took a mature, living oak that was minding its own business, and used a sledgehammer to jam thick wooden wedges through its trunk and branches, like a demented beaver. This task was apparently very difficult and time consuming, to say nothing of noisy.

Hoffman saw the sculpture with a friend and said they were “shocked by the rawness” of the work, along with the fact that the artist had “assaulted” a living tree that will likely die.

“Personally, I would never do that,” Hoffman said. “It feels like a really aggressive action and not something I associate with the museum and its relationship to nature… It's almost an ethical issue.”

Clearly, “Intersection” is not the type of art you buy to hang in the foyer and impress the in-laws. Still, Volmar said he was surprised by the negative reaction, also registered on Facebook and the blogosphere.

“All of Andy's stuff has trees in it,” Volmar said. “People aren't reacting to the other pieces that contain wood that's no longer alive. Here, it's like a violation, like they think the tree is being tortured. But Andy kills lots of trees. For me, there's an inconsistency to people's ideas about what's objectionable.”

As for Hoffman, Volmar said mildly, “I understand where she's coming from. She's very sensitive. She also has a sawmill in her yard.”

Likewise, the artist said he didn't anticipate being criticized for damaging a tree, and explained that he was evoking weather and climate issues, and the act of lightning striking trees.

“I'm intrigued by the drama and mystery of violence as a reflection of my personal stance in the world,” was how Moerlein put it, and I nodded knowingly despite my status as a Philistine. On his blog, he wrote of the sculpture: “ 'Intersection' is a defiant challenge to my own physical presence and the legacy of ideas documented.”

But others, such as Hoffman, don't see it that way. As for the sawmill, she said it belongs to a friend and was just on her property for a daylong demonstration. She said the wood she uses in her own art is from old logs or fallen trees.

“The piercing of a tree is an assault on something that's alive,” she said. “The issue is about how artists relate to the world. Are we creating more suffering, or are we showing a way toward peacefulness? ”

Listening to artists is a bit of a trip and a much calmer experience than, say, tuning in to talk radio. For example, most people get angry when criticized, and you'd be forgiven for assuming that Moerlein would like to take a wooden wedge and shove it through Hoffman's nose.

Instead, when I related Hoffman's criticism, Moerlein said, “That's very evocative. I didn't think about it from that point of view at all,” which I believe was one of the comeback lines used by President Barack Obama in his first debate with Mitt Romney.

The exhibit closes at the end of the month. Volmar said the controversy is unusual for Fruitlands, although not unwelcome.

“People don't usually complain about anything here,” he said. “But art is supposed to make people think.”

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